The UK has deployed one of its Type 45 warships to help escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a British vessel amid heightening tensions with the West.
The frigate, HMS Duncan, will operate alongside the Royal Navy’s HMS Montrose Type 23 to shepherd British-flagged ships through the strait, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The air defence destroyer will operate until late August, it said.
Oman, which shares the waterway with Iran, said it was in talks with “all parties” to restore stability to the waterway.
“We don’t mediate, but in this case we are more concerned than others to ensure the stability of navigation,” Foreign Minister Yousef Bin Alawi said after discussions with Iranian officials in Tehran. Oman has close ties with Iran.
Tensions have flared in the strait in recent weeks as Iran pushes back against US sanctions that are crippling its oil exports. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard detained the Stena Impero this month and is still holding the ship. That move came after UK forces seized an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar early this month for allegedly violating sanctions against Syria.
Oil chokepoint
The strait is a vital thoroughfare for the energy industry, accounting for about a third of the world’s seaborne oil flows. The UK said last week under former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt that further measures would be taken to respond to Iran, without giving detail on those plans.
“Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is vital not just to the UK, but also our international partners and allies,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in the statement. “Merchant ships must be free to travel lawfully and trade safely, anywhere in the world.”
The Type 45, manufactured by BAE Systems, was designed to replace the Type 42 warships that formed part of the Royal Navy’s fleet during the Falklands War. The final Type 42 was retired in 2013.
The UK and Iran are maintaining contacts to try to resolve the situation. In a letter published Sunday by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Boris Johnson on becoming the UK prime minister and said he hoped this would usher in improved ties between London and Tehran.
Britain’s ambassador to Iran said he had “good and detailed talks” with a senior hard-line lawmaker who heads the Iranian parliament’s foreign-affairs committee.
Envoy Robert Macaire said in a tweet that it was “important to keep these channels of discussion open” after meeting with cleric and lawmaker, Mojtaba Zonnour, in Tehran. Zonnour formerly was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In Vienna, representatives of China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK held talks with an Iranian envoy to try to salvage a nuclear deal from which the US withdrew last year.
The participants on Sunday reaffirmed commitments to preserving both Iran’s pledges to limit its nuclear activities and the promise of lifting sanctions under the deal, according to a European Union statement.
Unravelling deal
The tanker standoff has escalated regional strains over renewed US sanctions on Iran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear accord.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi characterized the talks as “constructive” but said his country will continue to scale back its commitments to the nuclear deal unless European powers guarantee Iran’s ability to gain economic benefits promised in the accord, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
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